8 Ginormous Skyscrapers Coming to London (Sooner Than You Think)

Thought The Shard was big? Well it is, and always will be. However, these 8 new bad boys popping up around London will certainly go some way towards measuring up to Europe’s tallest building. And they’ve got equally funky names, like The Scalpel (ouch) and The Cucumber (mmm).

1) The Herzog and Meuron Building, Canary Wharf

211m (10m taller than the BT Tower)

The Who-dog and Moo-what? Due to be completed in 2019, we’re going to affectionately call this monster the H&M. Perhaps they’re missing out by not calling it The Corn on the Cob.

2) One Merchant Square (aka The Cucumber), Paddington

150m (750 normal-sized cucumbers, stacked vertically)

Arriving in late 2019, One Merchant Square will be the tallest building in Westminster. It’ll be home to a boutique hotel, some outrageously expensive flats, and a few sky bars.

3) Manhattan Loft Gardens, Stratford

135m (same height as the London Eye)

A beautiful new development in downtown New Yor- oh, sorry, Stratford, this towering beauty has a completion date of 2018. With 3 sky gardens and a restaurant from the team behind Chiltern Firehouse, it’ll be hot property.

4) One Nine Elms, Vauxhall

200m (16 T-rex’s)

Joining the barren industrial wasteland that is set to transform over the next few years, One Nine Elms is due to be finished in 2018. And we just noticed the acronym of the name is O.N.E, woah.

5) The Stage, Shoreditch

141m (13 Globe Theatres)

That ^ is a tribute to the fact that The Stage is built on the site of where The Curtain Theatre used to stand, which is where Romeo and Juliet was first performed. This Shoreditch sky-tickler should be built by 2018.

6) One Blackfriars, South Bank

170m (almost 2 Big Bens)

It’s so damn shiny. And sleek. And beautiful. Which makes it no wonder that flat prices are almost as steep as the building itself, rising to a mammoth £23m. All 50 stories of the South Bank monolith should be completed by 2018.

7) Canaletto, Old Street

97m (2425 cannellonis, stacked)

Just one Canaletto, give it to me… A product of the start-up success of London ‘Sillicon Roundabout’, Canaletto is due to go up by the end of this year/beginning of next year, and will house a load of swanky apartments.

8) The Scalpel, City

190 metres (10m taller than The Gherkin)

Once you’ve got over saying you work in The Scalpel, you’d probably feel quite smug working here. Facing the Cheesegrater, it leans in the opposite direction, offsetting it in angle as well as in name.